their claims in those cases, and in others where there was a deficiency of proof, have determined to adjourn to the first day of March 1833. And as there is but one month after that period allowed by law for the final settlement of the claims, and distribution of the funds, it has become necessary to order, and notice is hereby given, that no application for rehearing or for filing original or supplemental memorials, or the introduction of proof, will be received after the first day of March 1833.'

"Notwithstanding the positive terms of this order, and the absolute necessity of its adoption, the Board, feeling great reluctance to shut out any claims which might be entitled to come under the Convention, waived the foregoing order, and received twenty-five new memorials, and all the testimony offered in all the cases, and considered and acted upon the same. "The object of the Board being only to effect as just and equitable a distribution of the fund as possible, to this end the Board at its second session passed an order and caused it to be published, giving the right to any claimant to file objections, and to support the same by argument or reference to proofs, against the admission of any other claims; and by this course the Board hoped to be aided in arriving at the truth and the application of just principles to each and all of the cases. The Board, however, did not reap as much benefit from this privilege as they had anticipated; nevertheless, the undersigned feel satisfied that the course adopted from time to time in granting indulgence to the claimants in the manner suggested was the only one dictated by the principles of justice. Indeed, it may with more propriety be said that the course pursued was one which had been dictated by the very nature of the cases arising under the Convention, rather than marked out by the Commissioners. If less time had been allowed the claimants, it is manifest to the Board that great injustice must have been done to many of them, who were guilty of no fault and to whom no negligence could be imputed.

"With this brief explanation of the course pursued by the Board, and their reasons for adopting it, they will now proceed to state the results of their whole operations.

"The gross amount of claims brought before the Board was upwards of three millions of dollars, and the total amount allowed is $2,154,425. To pay these amounts the convention provided the sum of $650,000, and interest on the installments, which together, it appears by a statement furnished the Board by the Secretary of the Treasury, amount to the sum of $670,564.70, which by a computation it will be seen is 31 and per cent on the gross amount allowed.

"The Schedule A will show the amount awarded to each claimant, and the amount of the dividend thereon.

"These documents exhibit a full and distinct view of the disposition of the fund committed to the charge of the Board.

"The Commissioners have nothing further to add than that they herewith send to the Department of State a journal, or record, of the proceedings, which shows with a more detailed accuracy the proceedings of the Board, from the time of its organization to the day of its final adjournment. The undersigned would recommend that Schedule A be transferred to the Treasury Department as a guide for the payment of the respective awards, and they would also suggest its speedy publication for the information of all those whom it may concern, or that such other mode may be adopted by the proper officers of the Government of the United States as may be suggested for the more convenient attainment of the object to be accomplished.

"All of which is respectfully submitted.

"GEO. WINCHESTER.
"J. HOYT.
"W. J. DUANE.

"Test:

"ROBERT FULTON, Secretary.

"The Board having thus completed the duties which were assigned to them, hereby order, that the Records of their proceedings, together with all the vouchers and documents produced relative to the claims preferred

to them, be deposited in the Department of State; and as the undersigned are of opinion that no further business will be laid before them appertaining to their duties as Commissioners under the said convention, and that no good object is to be answered by their continuing in session, do hereby agree to adjourn without day, and they do hereby adjourn without day. "GEO. WINCHESTER. "J. HOYT. "W. J. DUANE.

"Test:

"ROBERT FULTON, Secretary."

In connection with the settlement of the claims The Bergen Prizes. against Denmark for spoliations it is proper to refer to the case of the three British vessels captured in 1779 by the Alliance, Captain Landais, of the squadron under John Paul Jones, and carried into Bergen, in Norway, where, on the demand of the British minister, they were seized by the Danish Government and restored to their owners on the ground that, as Denmark had not acknowledged the independence of the United States, the prizes could not be considered as lawful. In a note to M. Bernstorf, the Danish minister for foreign affairs, of December 22, 1779, Franklin asked that the order of restoration be repealed, or that if it had been executed the value of the prizes, which was estimated at £50,000, should be paid by Denmark to the United States. M. Bernstorf answered evasively, though in substance he pleaded duress as an excuse for the order, which had been carried into effect. In 1787 Congress instructed Jefferson, who was then minister of the United States at Paris, to make a representation on the subject to the King of Denmark; and Jefferson authorized Jones to pursue the claim at Copenhagen. Nothing, however, was accomplished, and in 1806 Congress passed an act appropriating $4,000 to Landais as prize money on account of the captures. In 1812 Mr. Monroe as Secretary of State addressed an inquiry in regard to the claim to Mr. Pedersen, then Danish chargé d'affaires at Washington, who replied that his government never had considered the claim as legal, and that it now regarded it as superannuated and abandoned. Subsequently the matter was several times brought to the attention of Congress. But after the present convention with Denmark was carried into effect a question arose as to whether the claim was not barred by its provisions. An examination of them led the United States to conclude that it was not. While the high contracting parties by Article V. declared it to be their intention to terminate "all the claims which have hitherto been preferred," they also declared "that the present convention is only applicable to cases therein mentioned." The claims against Denmark mentioned in the convention were described in Articles I. and IV. In Article I. they were described, as we have seen, as "claims relating to the seizure, detention, condemnation, or confiscation of their (American citizens') vessels, cargoes, or property whatsoever, by the public and private armed ships, or by the tribunals of Denmark, or in the states subject to

3

Wharton's Dip. Cor. Am. Rev. III. 385, 433, 435, 528, 534, 540, 597, 678, 744; V. 462; VI. 261, 717.

Act of March 28, 1806, 6 Stats. at L. 61. 3 H. Rep. 389, 25 Cong. 2 sess.

the Danish scepter." In Article IV. they were described as "the claims hitherto preferred, or which may hereafter be preferred, relating to the seizure, detention, condemnation or confiscation of the vessels, cargoes, or property whatsoever, which in the last maritime war of Denmark have taken place under the flag of Denmark, or in the states subject to the Danish scepter." These descriptions were construed by the United States as excluding the claim for the Bergen prizes.' In 1848, however, Congress authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to pay to the legal representatives of Jones, and of the officers, seamen, and marines, their just proportions of the value of the prizes, adjusting their claims on principles of justice and equity, and deducting from Landais's share the sum which he received under the act of 1806.2

1H. Ex. Doc. 264, 28 Cong. 1 sess.

* Act of March 21, 1848, 9 Stats. at L. 214; Lawrence's Wheaton, 3 ed. note 16, p. 41.

"SIR: In answer to your letter of the 1st instant, requesting permission, on behalf of Mr. Tennant, to withdraw from the Department of State the papers filed by him with the Commissioners under the Danish convention, I have to inform you that those papers having been deposited in this Department in conformity with the act of the 25th of February, 1831, which directs that on the close of the commission the records, documents, and all other papers in the possession of the commission or its officers shall be deposited in this Department, and which makes no provision for any subsequent disposition of any portion of them, either by returning them to the claimants or otherwise, I do not consider myself authorized to permit them to be withdrawn. Copies of those papers, however, which relate to the claim of Mr. Tennant, will be furnished to you, upon the payment of the charges fixed by law for the same, and they have, agreeably to the request made by you to Dr. Jones, been ordered to be made." (Mr. McLane, Sec. of State, to Mr. Kennedy, January 4, 1834, MS. Dom. Let. XXVI., 135.)

CHAPTER G.

THE NEAPOLITAN INDEMNITY: CONVENTION OF OCTOBER 14,

1832.

Among the "allied" powers to whom Napoleon Invitation to American caused his Berlin and Milan decrees to be communicated Merchants. was the kingdom of Naples. The government of the kingdom, wisely heeding the intimation, promptly reenacted them-the Berlin decree on December 21, 1806, and the Milan on January 9, 1808. But the effect of these measures on the commerce of the country was so destructive that on March 31, 1809, the government, with a view to supplying the needs of the people, issued a decree inviting the importation by neutral vessels of certain enumerated articles. This measure did not, however, obtain the response that was expected; and for the purpose of securing importations, Murat, as Joachim the First, King of Naples, on June 30, 1809, issued a special decree by which American vessels were by name authorized to import into the kingdom not only the articles enumerated in the decree of the preceding March, but also rice and staves, Peruvian bark and other drugs, Georgia, Louisiana, and Carolina cotton, Java coffee and sugar. Moreover, the Marquis of Gallo, secretary for foreign affairs, on July 1, 1809, by order of the King, addressed a communication to F. Degan, esq., United States consul at Naples, by which it was declared to be the intention of His Majesty, as a general measure, freely to admit American vessels coming directly to his ports, provided they had regular papers and had not by paying duty to Great Britain, or by submitting to be searched by British cruisers, brought themselves within the decrees of December 21, 1806, and January 9, 1808.

Confiscations.

To these various solicitations the American merchants responded. The first two or three vessels that arrived were fairly treated, and were permitted to dispose of their cargoes. Their good fortune lured on a larger number, and when these arrived they were seized and confiscated. From 1809 to 1812 49 vessels or cargoes, or both, of the value of more than $2,000,000 were thus disposed of: 15 in 1809; 24 in 1810; 2 in 1811; 8 in 1812. Upward of 39 vessels and cargoes were confiscated under a single decree issued by Murat March 12, 1810, which was as follows:

NAPLES, March 12, 1810.

"Joachim Napoleon, King of the Two Sicilies, has decreed and does decree that which follows:

"ART. 1. In conformity with the orders which we gave from Paris the 21st of December 1809, we declare confiscated the American vessels whose names are subjoined, that is to say: The Augustus, Hercules, Zephyr, Sophia, Romp, Two Betseys, Kite, Sukey and Betsey, Mary, Capt. Derby, Syren Emily, Capt. Waterman, Francis, Hound, Peace, Victory, Dove, Urania,